Did JG 23 exists?

[JohnnyB]

Hi Jaap,

it seems a JG23 never have existed.

Here´s a well known and great page that shows all Luftwaffe units.

http://www.asisbiz.com/Luftwaffe.html

[Matti Salonen]

I did some detective work and found the following:
- In original FP Number -Book the Change Nr. 10 covers the period in question (6.4. - 9.11.1944).
- The vertical column, which contains unit designations, has for 31695 only III/KG 1 and II/JG 7 without any reference to III/JG 23. For me this is enough to ensure, that JG 23 never existed.
But still there is a question, why JG 23 is mentioned by Kannapin. One explanation could the the following:
- In the same vertical column below III/KG 1 and II/JG 7 there is the unit designation for the next FP Number 31696 and this is 14.Kp.Jäg.Rgt. 23 (L). Maybe Kannapin's (weary?) eyes have simply combined III/KG 1 and 14.Kp.Jäg.Rgt. 23 (L) into III/JG 23. The book has no printed horizontal lines between different FP Numbers, which makes reading more difficult.

Matti

[Larry deZeng]

Here's another puzzle of sorts on the same theme. In the HW5 decrypts for August 1942, Western Europe section, there are dozens and dozens of references to KG 8 and KG 47. These are far, far too numerous to be a typo or anothing of that sort. The intercepts are everything from strength returns, aircraft maintenance and repair issues, to routine personnel matters to you name it. Luftflotte 3 is often an addressee along with Ob.d.L. in Berlin and various depots and schools in the Reich. These are Enigma decrypts, which the Wehrmacht believed to be secure, so why the use of non-existent units?

L.

[Andrew Arthy]

Hi Larry,

These kinds of signals continued in 1943 and 1944, and are usually marked as training signals.

Cheers,
Andrew A.

Air War Publications - www.airwarpublications.com

[Larry deZeng]

Hmmm............

Thank you, Andrew, and I'm sure you must be right. My guess was intelligence spoof traffic, which was frequently used by both sides during the war.

What remains to be answered is why Bletchley Park omitted their usual "Comment" entry beneath these intercepts to explain their misleading nature. I am assuming that these are the same CXX/MSS summaries that were teletyped to Air Ministry in London and on arrival were used in part by both A.I.3 and A.I.4 to construct slightly disguised intelligence reports that were distributed to War Office, Admiralty, Fighter Command, Bomber Command, Coastal Command, U.S. 8th AAF and later USSTAF, War Dept. WashDC, British Mil. Attaché WashDC, etc. These are totally separate from the DEFE 3 Hut 3 signals and not to be confused with them.

I guess you could say that I am still puzzled on this one. One well-studied authority on this has ventured that these intercepts were intentionally disguised because the Germans suspected the British were reading their Enigma traffic, and that "KG 8" is a cover for KG 2, and "KG 47" is a cover for KG 30 or 76 or whatever.

L.